The Economics of Love

Welcome

This week our questions are ones that sit in all our minds, like an object we may have tried to put in an attic and ignore, but it was so heavy that our ceiling started to sag. It's there if we turn on the television, open a newspaper, look closely at our neighbors, go to work and, definitely, when we try to find a job. We are in a time when economic stress weighs heavily on the minds and hearts of those we know. These stresses and changes can play through our emotions and compassion and, in a good way, test us to use our ingenuity to find new ways to open our hearts and minds.

Each of us have gifts and talents. During times of stress, we can find that there is a vat of undiluted Love in each of us waiting to be discovered. We each have untapped God gifts. A time of stress is an unequaled time to surprise ourselves, not to mention our allies and loved ones, with our ability to look toward our strengths, when many others choose not to.

Our Questions & Quest:

How do we maintain our equilibrium when we are in a sea of lack in the economy?

When we are in an emotional pull from the material underpinnings being threatened, how do we still live in Gratitude?

Start by Knowing You Have Something to Bring

Part of solving any puzzle is a willingness to be here to bring together the solution, a willingness not to run. When faced with a puzzle, there are fight or flight reflexes that nestle deep in our human senses, the lower part of who we are, our gut reaction to fly the coop. It's those "get me out of here," or "at least get me to a movie so I can relax and relate to something other than this situation," or "just let me pretend I'm not here" feelings.

In these cases, remember we also have a will. Not the head-strong will, but the part of us that is motivated to move toward Good, with such a fury and fire, that we want to do nothing else, but get there. We have within us that strong-tender will. A will, not of steel, but a will that is like a beckoning, that says simply, gently, "come," like opening our hands for a child to walk to, a will that invites us to come to the moment, to be who we Are.

We can use this will to know that we all hold a key, an answer.  It can help us take the steps into being part of the solution, not just for ourselves, but for the Whole.  This is vital when we want to solve a global crisis.

When there are many problems, it can be attractive to try to just solve what we see as our own problems first before we help others. At this time of stress, it is important that we do the opposite of what may seem, at first, attractive.

Part of my answer is to stay involved and be an inspiration for others. Fostering the spirit is the key to our understanding of any problem, for if we have spiritual health then we can walk into the very fires of hell and know we are not of it.  Part of my answer, is to open to bring that Truth here and not give up.  

Look deeply into your own heart.  What gifts do you bring to this table?  What is there right now, at this moment, that you are holding, that would help you to be a better solution in this world?

Take time to journal, to write your gifts and ways they could be solutions or help us find solutions. Journaling is a good key, as long as you put your heart forward and your mind on the shelf. Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way, says that we have a censor in our mind and to tell him or her that he's not invited when writing in our journals. If that voice shows up, we can veto it.

Even if you have been journaling or searching out your talents and gifts for years, that doesn't mean there are not more. Love is infinite. If you dive in, you may go right into unchartered waters and find a new gift. "I never thought I had that trait or talent and here it is ready for me. Now, I can face my day with greater courage... ambition... whatever is needed, now... "

Please voice your inspirations in the Comments section of Resound. Let us all know some of the many ways you are part of our greater answer and inspire us all to be an answer as well.

Gratitude In A Time Of Lack: Opening To Generosity of The Spirit

A huge way we can return to and stay in gratitude is to become more and more and more generous, more Heartfully generous, in a way that doesn't take spending a dime. If we become more lovingly generous, it can be a tremendous cure for others and for ourselves. Generosity has been one of my great teachers. It teaches us to meet people in equality, not judgement, in Love, not out of contrition or a sense of obligation, as a student as well as a teacher and as part of the Whole instead of as a separate person coming to meet another person.

In this time of financial loss, it is a great song of the Heart to feel how we can still be generous. Through generosity we can find that generosity is part of who we really are, something that can lead us back to feeling like the authentic beings we really are. When we give our time to a cause or to a person we care about or give love to someone without reservation, it opens something in us and we can be reborn through our simple acts of generosity.

In our world, in our community, there are all types of volunteer work. If you are inspired to share one of your gifts or talents, community work can be spiritual work and spiritual learning whenever it is done in Love. In an era when we have moved apart economically, we can come together as a community. We can see God in each others' eyes and show each other that God/Love is Here. We can put on boots and go to work. We can dig a trench and teach a child to read and it can all be prayer. We can be the ones who start a community program, a community garden or environmentally and soulful community housing project.

What inspires you?

Coming Together: Communion on the Material Plane

This time of material distress is a time to learn that the old system was not leading us toward greater communion, both with ourselves as servants of the Truth and with each other as the fire of the greater I Am that leads us to Wholeness. Taking that to the ground level means that our economic system was often built on the individual working to further his interests, then thinking of his neighbor... maybe. Today, we are in a crisis that affects us all, great and small, rich and poor. We can't escape the fact that corruption and a turn from healthy environmental practices has affected us all.

One option we have is to come together and share what we have. There are many choices for living in community from organic farming communities to spiritual communities to co-housing communities with apartments and homes. It's a new way of being from the way we have been living in America. But, if we come together to live in community, not as a form of escapism or isolation, but a way to build a global network of spiritually informed, healthy living people who support each other in eating well, teaching our children and ourselves to love one another and value people of all ages, then in these communities, be they an expanded household or a hundred acre farm, we can daily practice living not just together, but in communion, in flow.

The more we isolate, the more we fall apart. The more we share, the more we come together. Even if you don't live in a community household, you can still be part of the greater community. There are many ways people are finding to share rides, to share groceries, to share meals, to share gardens and to share child care.  

If we let Love be our leader and generosity our follow though, we are apt to end up in a stream of gratitude.  Gratitude is a state of the heart, not of the mind or the wallet.  No matter where we are and what we choose, we can still return to gratitude and Love.  This is a given.  This is a solution.  

My Prayer

My Prayer is that you be tremendous

That you shake with the sound of your Name coming back to You

That you move the Earth with the sweet sound of your footfalls because

You know you have come to do a duty that only you can do

That you have come

To bring back the Sound

Of One Name crying out

Together We Are

I AM

With Love,

Atala